Surreal KSFO “Special Broadcast” defies description
Published by Mike Stark January 13th, 2007 in UncategorizedAt times, the KSFO special radio afternoon was uproarious and side-splitting. At other times, it was darkly disturbing. Sometimes, it was both at the same time.Unfortunately, “honest,” “serious,” and “relevant” aren’t adjectives that immediately spring to mind after listening to KSFO hosts Melanie Morgan, Brian Sussman, “Occifer Vic” and Lee Rodgers engage in a three hour session of desperate and defensive damage control.
What is most unfortunate is that desperation almost invariable leads to more lies and distortions. Let’s examine a few…
In this segment, Lee Rodgers makes the offensive and disgusting claim that the Yale glee club that was assaulted in the Bay Area last week were beaten up by “lefties” for singing the Star Spangled Banner. The truth, as usual, is much more mundane:
In the end, old-fashioned jealousy and a rivalry between two prominent Catholic preparatory high schools, St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral, may have been the triggers, according to both the party hosts and parents of the injured.The alleged assailants were party crashers who reportedly organized the attack as the choir — tired of repeated taunts, including “fag” and “homo” — headed outside after singing their trademark sing-along National Anthem.
The party was hosted by two St. Ignatius graduates at the home of Dawydiak and her husband, both lawyers and San Francisco police veterans. Dawydiak, on disability leave from the police force, and her husband, now retired, have a rocky past with their police bosses.
Dawydiak recounted how one of the taunters called friends via cell phone to direct them to the party. As the choir went outside, several young men jumped out of a van, throwing bottles and pummeling singers, who witnesses said did not retaliate.
Dawydiak and others called them thugs with a history of troublemaking, who’d been drinking earlier and were jealous that young women at the party were giving their attention to the coat-and-tie-clad songsters.
This was to be the order of the day. The KSFO hosts undertook to unfairly, dishonestly and, with a subtle air of desperation, demonize their opponents. The only time during the show that this strategy wasn’t followed was when the KSFO hosts unfairly, dishonestly and with a subtle air of desperation sought to defend their irresponsible rhetoric and blatant hypocrisy.
For example, Melanie Morgan decided to read a critic’s email on the air. In “Jay’s” email, he spoke of Melanie Morgan’s effort to keep Michael Moore’s movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, from being screened in theaters. As part of the campaign, Move America Forward, the controversial and shadowy group that Morgan chairs and that is funded in part through the Department of Defense, “launched an electronic campaign, both via e-mail and through its Web site,” that encouraged theaters not to play Moore’s film.
Morgan purposefully and completely distorted the nature of her activism in such a way as to lead her listeners to believe that she did nothing that could be construed as attempting to limit Moore’s freedom of expression. Put simply, Morgan lied.
The people that called in to the show were every bit as entertaining as the hosts, but that should have come as no surprise. When I spoke with Morgan, she admitted to sending an email the night before the show to over one million conservatives, asking them to call the show to support her. It is little wonder that almost every caller they spoke with was sympathetic/sycophantic towards the hosts.
The real issue, however, is Moore’s unrepentant lack of integrity.
This show was a damage control effort aimed at reversing the flight of their advertisers. Morgan’s co-hosts defended her email blast by saying that the show streams to thousands of people that listen on the internet. What the hosts did not say is that advertising is not broadcast on the internet stream. The callers from outside the immediate Bay Area listening area will never hear a KSFO advertisement without travelling to KSFO’s broadcast range. As such, Morgan’s email served only to jam their phone lines with a self-selected conservative activist constituency. Dissenting viewpoints never had a chance to get through the busy signals. Maybe that was for the better. In the end, we got a better idea of exactly who KSFO’s target audience is.
One caller compared liberal bloggers to Iraqi terrorists. When Lee Rodgers asked if any of his co-hosts had anything to add, one spoke up, “nothing except to underline it, maybe.”
Another caller weighed in shortly later. At first, “Gary” was supremely entertaining. He suggested that the hosts were doing a great job and that, like the hosts, he was always going to speak his mind. He didn’t care that his outspoken nature had already cost him two jobs - he just was not going to stop speaking his mind.
The smiles brought on by the mental image of a borderline personality bus-boy confronting me over my MoveOn.org bumper sticker quickly faded when he went on to suggest that, “Islamofascism is a cancer and only radiation can cure cancer in the end of it.” Lee Rodgers’ reaction after that caller insinuated the need to nuke the Muslims? Thank you very much for the call.”
As interesting as Morgan’s astroturf callers were, another important story is how devastatingly poor the hosts’ performance actually was. If this was an effort to save their broadcast slot or to shore up failing advertising revenues, I fear they fell short in their efforts. Way short. Lee Rodgers even went so far as to blackmail his advertisers through implication. After reading an email from a supporter that asked for the names of the advertisers that withdrew support of the station, Rodgers said, “these people who want to play that boycott game… they seem to forget… this is a sword that cuts both ways. We have plenty of people that listen to this radio station that say ‘hell, if somebody is trying to shut up the people on my favorite radio station, I don’t think I want to give them any money,’ so it could work two ways.”
I’m no advertising buyer, but if a radio show host suggested that he’d have his listeners boycott my product if I chose not to advertise on his show… well… Let’s just say that I’m quite sure I’d be thinking the host was a little kooky and little unworthy of my ad dollars.
Rodgers is the professional though – and according to him, he will not apologize because he doesn’t care what we bloggers think. But what came next was simply astounding… It was Lee Rodgers again, this time displaying his racists tendencies… without apology, in all of their glory, and in the middle of a special broadcast that aimed at showing advertisers how trustworthy KSFO’s hosts are and why they deserve advertisers continued patronage!
The issue was Nancy Pelosi’s appointment of the first Muslim Congressman in the history of the United States, Keith Ellison, to the Judiciary Committee. When I called the show I asked Rodgers what, specifically, his problem was having Ellison on the Committee. Rodgers denied any racism – he simply doesn’t want a Muslim there because, “Muslims will tell you that their faith is inseparable from government and therefore our system of laws and justice would be invalid under Islamic law and he claims to be a devout Muslim, claims he’s going to stand up for it…” In other words, according to Rodgers, if a Muslim is to serve in our government, their faith needs to be weak and inconsequential for him to feel comfortable. Does this make anyone else’s skin crawl?
As this story enters its second week, KSFO is reeling. Their hosts, try as they may, cannot change their stripes. Finally, through the efforts of an anonymous blogger named Spocko, sunlight is disinfecting one of the darkest regions of the hate-radio universe.
Questions do remain, however… Why does ABC/Disney see fit to profit through the broadcast of snuff-talk? Spocko has damning and irrefutable evidence that the emails he sent to ABC and Disney executives were read and the clips he sent were downloaded.
Will advertising buyers take greater care before placing ads on stations sold under the Disney brand and labeled as “family friendly”?
Will ABC/Disney follow through on their threat to sue Spocko? Will they sue me? Will they sue Air America (claiming that I was acting as their employee, as Melanie Morgan suggested today)?
In the end (though we are nowhere near the end), this is a human drama that involves all of us. It is fairly difficult not to be a “liberal” or a “conservative” or “godless” or a “bible-thumper” or a “hippie” or a “troop” or an “activist” or a “corporate shill” or a “blogger” or a “freeper”. For the most part, everyone will find themselves on one side or the other of the political chasm that divides our country. Under these conditions, the invective spit into KSFO’s microphones is nothing if not dangerous. And it needs to stop.
At the end of my call, this is part of an email exchange I had with one of the hosts of the program after my call:
Thanks man, no problem about not getting on your show. [ed. yesterday]Eventually the polarization trend will reverse itself and things won’t be so heated - I wish it [ed. our meeting] coulda been under better circumstances too.
But thanks for having me on and digging into the discussion.
Seriously, bottom line, take-away stuff is that I know you guys have to make a living. I think you can do it without being over-the-top… hundreds of other hosts have managed… cut out the execution of liberals, advocacy of torture and borderline racism and we can go back to arguing politics.
I sincerely hope that day arrives soon.
55 Responses to “Surreal KSFO “Special Broadcast” defies description”
- 1 Pingback on Jan 15th, 2007 at 2:31 am
- 2 Pingback on Mar 13th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Leave a Reply
Search
Login
Donations Accepted
Subscribe
Posts- Comments
- Podcast
Their biggest problem seems to be they’re not very good at editing out your voice. I feel strange about this - but I was embarassed for them. If you’re going to be dishonest and cut someone off, at least do it well.
At least O’Reilly and Hannity, et al, have some professionalism about it. Listing to the whole audio clip, these guys are not just reactionary nutjobs, but they are unprofessional as well.
Ultimately they seem to be pretty worthless of attention. If it weren’t for a well intentioned blogger getting screwed by Disney, I’d think this whole thing is not worth the time. But in any case, KSFO made a fool of themselves.
the lie about the brawl in sf is going on all over the right wing echo chamber.
it is another attempt at trying to malign the people of sf and nancy pelossi
and i dont buy the rivalry between si and sh either.
as a native, while i know that these two schools do have a rivalry, very rarely does it come to blows
and these kids were all graduates….none were currently attending the schools in question
and while the parties deny it, i am sure that alcohol played a major role in this brawl (it was new years) but the kids and adults made sure not to let out any alcohol related stories as all the participants involved were underaged.
and winnowhead, dont stand up for the heil one…he had the kid on who got his teeth kicked in, and even though the kid never said it, hannity repeatedly stated that the kids got beat up for singing the national anthem.
btw, has anyone asked the glee club why in the world did they choose to sing the anthem at a new years eve house party?
as for the show itself….what a waste of 3 hours
nothing but self congratulations and outright lies
such as when morgan insisted that on numerous posts, spocko urges advertisers to pull their ads from the station…..
problem is, those posts dont and never existed
i heard rodgers turn to the old standbye of fear, that it his voice alone that is holding back the islamo fascist hordes
ya…it is truly realistic that they willl be taking over the country.
rodgers was at one time a moderate voice on kgo….but they dumped his ass thx to low ratings….so amazingly, he shows up on ksfo as an arch conservative….just another hack who doesnt believe in half the things he says
as for ksfo, they used to known by the moniker “the sounds of the city” and had greats like jazbo collins, jim lange, russ syracuse and more on the station. they also broadcast giants games and had old time radio at nights, as well as a series called the chronicles of pop, which was the history of rock and roll (and was brilliant and i wish i could find it somewhere) but that part of am radio is now dead, and we are left with a vast wasteland
i listened to the clip after i posted, and i didnt know that you even made it on the air
i do wish that you had been able to answer their questions about copywrite laws….for it is apparent that rodgers has no clue, and even when questioned on the show, he deffered to abc’s attys (but not when he was attacking you)
rodgers is wrong when he says it goes against copywrite law to rebroacast clips and then take them out of context (not that any of the clips were) for it is apparent that he knows nothing about the fair use doctrine
and i wish you could have asked him why ksfo has yet to go after kpix and media matters for basically doing the same thing as spocko…the only dif is, spocko sent those clips to the advertisers
had spocko never started his campaign, and just had a simple blog, the shite never wouldve hit the fan
and i do love how they can demean everyone who is their polar opposite, but god forbid that anyone should demean them
calling you a stalker…that was just absurd….please inform those that attend political rallys and ask questions,,,they are now stalkers….and hey, they acknowledged that you helped to defeat senator macaca….as they couldnt even get pambo reelected (thank god) you have more power then they do….kinda cool for a blogger who sits in his basemant in his underwear
oh, and someone needs to tell rodgers he just lost an entire segment of his audience with his demeaning of star trek fans
if he thinks libs are bad…wait till he start getting hate mail from us trekkies
live long and prosper
Pretty hilarious that Lee hangs up on you just as he claims that you are attempting to silence people!
The links are’nt werking! the links are’nt werking!
….Now as i listen again, the funniest thing is they play the clips as spock posted them and follow with “taken outta context”, which in turn is followed by…yaw..n…. “libs are so full of hate it scews there auditory skills”.
Funny, sad, pathetic, I’m a proud San Franciscan, and I’m ashamed that our hate radio personalities are so low rent…
Great job, Mike…the only thing I would have added was when they kept perpetuating the meme that contacting their advertisers about the content of their message is the same thing as trying to “shut down” their free speech…..I would have told them that they are welcome to continue their hate message if and when their sponsors peel off after hearing some of their bile-laden comments…..all they will have to do is to find advertisers that are willing to publicly share their “core values” and support their message on-air by providing advertising revenue.
Personally, I believe if the if KSFO air team concludes that loss of their existing advertisers would result in them being “shut down”, it is nothing but a tacit admission on their part of their own recognition of just how volitile their message really is, and how difficult, if not damn near impossible, it will be for them to find any major sponsor willing to write a check to buy airtime to fund them, and be publicly associated with putting their foaming message of hatred on the air now that the general public is aware of what they are saying on KSFO.
You are correct…they are in full-blown panic mode, and while their “town hall” may have appealed to the rabid red-meat radicals among their core listeners, when it comes to their advertisers, it may just have put another nail in their coffin.
I hope you consider sending a full - IN CONTEXT - CD of the entire “town hall” program to each of their advertisers first thing tomorrow….if you need help, just tell us where to write the checks….Along with me, I am sure a few of your blog posters will pony up to defray the costs.
Listen to tough guy Lee Rodgers “We’re gonna bite back”, “We ain’t gonna take it creep!”
Blah, blah, blah.
Why didn’t you enlist you fat fuck? Like Stark did, like I did? Like Pat Tillman did? Like so, so many liberal “pussies” before your fatass wobbled up to a microphone and sacrificed nothing more than lung gas for your beloved country patriot.
These jerkoffs simply have no conscience to care that they’re lying to their audience and themselves and each day is another lesson in hypocrisy. Provided it propels the right wing agenda a blatant lie, in the face of RECORDINGS, is not a sin. Morgan knows she’s lying, but she does it, in her mind, for the greater good. Much like radical Islamists have twisted the Koran to justify their behavior.
The one thing Melanie and Lee that you should start to get straight is your pathetic view that liberals are “whiny wimps”. See, that’s your role now. I was too young to know how much truth there was to that notion 20-30 years ago but the tide has certainly turned. Was Pat Tillman a whiny wimp? Is Jim Webb a whiny wimp? What about Chuck Hagel, who also doesn’t agree with the policies you cheerlead for this administration? Is my brother, a trained soldier, who is serving his country dutifully a whiny wimp? Am I, a veteran, that has never met a neocon that would stand up to me?
You got it all wrong dickheads. Continue living in your fantasyland about the kind of people with genuine courage and integrity. You’re pathetic chickenhawk neocons. Just like a laundry list of your silly right wing brethren. I couldn’t look myself in the mirror if I was any one of you - the only muscles you use are your jaws. Your false bravado doesn’t fool me, at least. Enlist. Chumps.
And yes, my rhetoric is not far removed from the hatespeak on the airwaves but I’m not threatening anyone, I’m not a blatant racist, and a little coarse language in the depths of a blog never hurt anybody.
Plus I don’t have any advertisers.
Great job Mike,
In Dallas we have Mike Gallagher on KSKY. The other day he was whining about the whole Pizza Patron non-scandal. I am sure you are familiar with it. A resturant owner in a hispanic area of Dallas has started accepting pesos at his resturant. Predictably, the Hate Jockeys are all over it. Gallagher was talking about dressing up in a pancho and sombrero nd going down there to protest. I hope he does as that is in an area of town that where if a white guy pulled a stunt like that, it would probably be his last. Now, where the fuck do these “Conservative” free market, free enterprise people get off telling people how to run their businesses?
How many times have the “Christians” and the Hate Jockeys called for astroturf campaigns to call sponsors and boycott advertizers who support Air America or any other media outlet that exposes their lies and hypocracy.
With smart, passsionate and dilligent people like you, hopefully this can go national. Exposing these facists is kinda like shooting fish in a barrel. I personally prefer to catch them on a hook so you can eat them and have never actually shot fish in a barrel, but I can imagine it would be pretty easy.
wow… just… wow…
after reading the post and the 8 comments so far, i am reminded of a picture that I’ve got on my computer…
let’s see if i can find it…
… there it is!
well it showed in the preview…
here’s a link
I was listening here in SF for at least part of the show, and was unable to to listen live when your conversation with these folks ended. After listening to your clip, I do have one question… Did Lee Rodgers essentially hang up on you? Am I interpreting what I heard correctly?
Hey, here’s a question - unless this thing dies down real quick, it will continue to be discussed in the talking head shows. I don’t think it’s impossible that somebody from Olbermann to Colbert, or to Hannity or O’Reilly, may talk about this (from quite different perspectives, of course!) But if Spocko chooses to remain anonymous, and Mike will be preoccupied with Law School from next week, who will be our “public face” on this matter? I don’t want to see these shows discuss this with only whining Melanie Morgan as the sole guest.
Any intelligent person knows that these radio hosts were owned.
You spanked ‘em Mike, plain and simple. They tried to backpeddle, they tried to act like they had some kind of moral high ground, and in the end their arguments were as juvenile as their opinions.
They were owned. As much as I am disgusted by these people and do not believe they deserve anymore attention, these folks tried to play off the “threat” directed towards them. We all know better.
Way to go Mike. (And why didn’t these fools realize that removing their advertising dollars is NOT trying to ’shut them down’? Only making them aware of haten speech)
His argument calling you ‘gutless’ proved he lost the argument, plain and simple.
End of discussion.
KSFO lost, and they lost badly.
OMG..who would even bother to listen to these fools..the crap that came out of Rodgers mouth was astonishing. What cracked me up was how they belittled Spocko for not going public and Mellanie was whining about getting more security..well duh! Oh that Rodgers sounds like a real tough guy .. I think I could whip his ass and I’m an old lady with a bad back.
“Oh that Rodgers sounds like a real tough guy .. I think I could whip his ass and I’m an old lady with a bad back.”
See. That’s the kind of spirit I like to hear. I think you could too Kat. He’s a fatbody draft dodger, just like his Rightwing buddies before him.
The truth here is KSFO was a stick in the ratings mud. This gives them new life, new listeners and that all important tune in factor. It’s a cliche that more true in this case, all publicity is good publicity and the far left is providing KSFO will tens of thousands of dollars of it. Nothing is going to happen to these hosts, you’re kidding yourselves if you think it will. Then again, this isn’t about altruism for you anyway. You demand and thrive on publicity too. That’s your thing, obviously. So congratulations, I guess.
One more story about an individual citizen making a difference. We (Billy Sunshine Radio Show) will be interviewing Spocko this afternoon at 3:00 pm (pacific time) on KRXA (www.krxa540.com) and “taking up the cause” against big media and for free speech. We will be asking our listeners to get active and start sending letters to sponsors too.
Sent this to Melanie Morgan when the show started - wonder why they didn’t read it on air?
Melanie:
I think this comes down to simple economics - If a sponsor feels that they do not want to give your show money because you say something the advertiser feels denigrates the value of their product by association, whose fault is that?
I’m assuming that :
•The soundbites that were sent to advertisers by Spocko were from your show, correct?
• And I’m assuming you all have full muscle control over your own mouths, is that correct?
• You were never possessed by an evil smelly demon during your air-shift, right?
• So when you said that the files Spocko was sending were “just plain lies” did he have some sort of puppeteer, voodo-doll curse on you where he was putting words in your mouth like you were some sort of ventriloquist doll and he had his hand up somewhere?
You can say what they want, but you can’t expect a sponsor to pay you for saying things that the sponsor finds offensive.
Remember - the sponsors pulled ads because of listening to the actual, unedited audio files from your shows, and the advertisers were offended. Sometimes accountability is rough.
And by the way, I’m not giving you my full name because anyone who would say (and I know you said it - I heard the audio file) that “We’ve got a bull’s-eye painted on her [Nancy Pelosi’s] big, wide laughing eyes” isn’t stable enough to have my personal info.
I made a little mashup from some Media Matters audio of the morning before the special and various video clips. YOu should be able to find it at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTf3GJYZ85gI’m gonna toss in a pair of pennies and probably get screamed at.
Has anyone here ever been to a website that includes images or cartoons (or photoshopped photos) or references to Bush Amin people either with a noose around their necks, or dressed as Nazis, or in prison or about to be executed , or portrayed as small and unpleasant animals? Anyone?
I sure have. These image of Republicans, cartooned to be all sorts of evil and de-humanized things are RAMPANT on leftie websites and even leftie TV shows. (SNL is never shy about dehumanizing folks for laughs.)
What’s my reaction when I see this stuff? Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I don’t. It depends on the skill of the satirist, or the degree of my anger at the target.
Has anyone ever seen the SNL episode where Dana Carvey (as Papa Bush) and Will Ferrel (as the little Bush kid) are out hunting? It’s one of the funniest political satires I have ever seen. In the sketch, it’s a flashback to before Bush took over in 2001, and their out in the woods, alone, with guns, and the father keeps talking himself out of shooting his son in the back “for the good of the country. In he end, father can’t do it, because it’s his own flesh and blood. The inference is clear, though, that Papa Bush is enough of a patriot and a sensible American to want to “take out” a threat to his country.
I laughed my ASS off when I first saw that sketch. I couldn’t stop laughing over what I though was hard edged satire. ( I miss Carvey and Ferrel on that show, but who doesn’t?)
Anyway. My Point:
Did anyone move heaven and Earth to fight back against SNL for going over that line? Does anyone here think Bartcop should be sandbagged as hard as this radio station? Bartcop’s site is covered in “eliminationist images”. Some of it is funny. What about Oliphant’s dehumanizing portrayal of Sec. Rice as a crow or a mynah bird. YIKES!!?!
Sure it pisses us off for radio personalities to go over the line in attacking the left. To call for eliminationist rhetoric, etc. It’s a human reaction. And if advertisers don’t want to support them, also fine.
But to devote any time to squelching anyone’s free speech is a mistake.
Think it through.
Free speech INCLUDES speech you don’t like. It has to.
There’s no grey area on this.
tybunny. Hopping around in logical circles.
I think the appropriate response to criticism of Spocko’s anonymity is to point out that a large portion of the frothing at the mouth done by these …multiple expletives deleted… jerks is incitement to violence. While the aforementioned jerks can hire (or force the station to hire) security (to protect them from massive liberal violence), an individual might not be able to afford such a thing - and why should he have to expose himself to whatever those rabble rousers should instigate against him? As I understand it, Spocko merely exposed advertisers to the content they were paying for - and KSFO is presumably proud of. By the way, incitement to violence and solicitation of murder are not “free speech.” These stations use my airwaves under licence from my representatives. Advocating the “stomping to death” of myself and a large segment of the population over the air is not protected speech. If I publicly made the same “bullseye” comment about the Idiot-In-Chief that KSFO broadcast about the third in line to the presidency by their paid employees, how long do you think it would be before the secret service showed up on my doorstep? Incitement to riot is a crime. At the risk of being redundant ,when they advocate violence they have crossed a very bright line.
tybunny,
Nobody is suggesting doing away with freedom of speech.
Sending uneditted audio clips of parts of a show to the advertisers that, through their advertising dollar, support such rhetoric is simply bringing transparancy to an area normally transparent. If you believe more transparency is bad, then we probably have little more to say to each other.
It is then up to the advertisers to choose whether to continue sending their dollars in. Does the radio show message bolster or denigrate their product(s).
The blogger is providing a service normally incorporated into a marketing department, that of checking up and auditing where and how their money is spent.
tybunny - I’m not familiar with bartcop, but my guess is that it’s one guy’s personal website? Isn’t there is a qualitative difference between one lone guy’s website (which, one assumes, doesn’t have a lot of ad revenue dollars to go after), and a large commercial station broadcasting eliminationist rhetoric over the *public* airwaves to hundreds of thousands? And remember the point here is not even to demand that advertisers pull ads (though that is to be hoped in order that KSFO get the message), nor to organize a boycott: rather it is simply to let the advertisers know what is being said on the shows they’re supporting, and to let them decide whether they really want to be associated with that. With bartcop, which I’m assuming doesn’t really have ads, what action could one take? Shutting the whole site down? Since no one is really advocating shutting all of KSFO down, that’s not really analogous.
The SNL skit (which again I haven’t seen since I haven’t watched SNL in many many moons) is a little better analogy. If it is as you describe, I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about the wingnutosphere being up in arms about it. It does sound a bit over the top, and I think we’d be better off if we had less joking about killing people we disagreed with in general. But again, one significant substantive difference I see here is the cognitive dissonance of an ex-President torn by feelings about a current president, and the suggestion by Coulter and Morgan that all liberals in the country be executed. Not public figures, *ALL* of them. Considering that at least one devotee of Coulter and Malkin has been sending fake anthrax letters to Nancy Pelosi and Keith Olbermann, that may be a more significant difference than it seems.
Jeeze, tybunny, if you don’t like all those things, why arn’t you doing something about it? That’s the difference here. Spocko and Mike and all the others find what these idiots at KSFO are doing is offensive and are doing something about. They are not taking away KSFO’s free speech, the idiots are free to keep spouting all they want. Just as we who are opposed to such talk are free to spout all we want in opposition. Just as the advertisers who pay to allow the idiots to spout are free to decide they don’t need to support such nonsense. What never ceases to amaze me is that people for some reason seem to think you get a free pass along with your right to free speech. Says who? The only pass you get is from prosecution or persecution from the gov’t. You do get to tell your boss he’s an f’ing idiot, but to expect you may pay a price for that lil bit of free speech is kinda silly. I wonder why when the Dixie Chicks took all sorts of grief both verbally and economically from the right wingers there wasn’t an equal outrage of “infringement” of free speech. What I think it amounts to is of late it certainly appears the right wingers are the school yard bully types, they can certainly dish it out, but soon as someone with the guts stands up to them, well the incredible amount of whing makes it seem they sure can’t take it.
TBunny, Free speech is just that….free. It does not include a paycheck. Nobody is trying to muzzle KSFO. Melanie Morgan can continue to rant till the cows come home….just not on our purchasing power, through advertising funded by corporations who we, as consumers, keep in business through our purchases.
What they ARE doing is exercising free speech by contacting advertisers to say, “Do you want your product associated with this message?”
If Ms. Morgan wants to advocate violence and racism, she is free to do so. She can set her soapbox on any street corner in America. However, free speech does not guarantee a megaphone to distribute it on other peoples funding.
Melanie wants to advocate hate and feels the use of the airwaves is important to her message?….all she has to do is find advertisers willing to fund her hate-speech, or foot the bill herself.
Throughout all of this, I have not heard of a single person asking for her to be removed from the air….we just seek to interrupt the funding of her hate speech by responsible and ethical advertising sources.
All we are doing is petitioning the advertisers to say her message is irresponsible, and that we have the good faith to believe that people like her have an accountability for the message they emit.
This is not a “free speech” issue….we are talking about FUNDED speech.
I think folks missed the point I was making. It wasn’t so much that I was upset by, or complaining about such things as the SNL sketch with the Bushes out hunting. And I wasn’t opposed to Spocko or what he did.
I wasn’t complaining at all, in fact, I found that SNL sketch roaringly funny. I happen NOT to find Ann Coulter, and folks like her, funny at all. But (and this is important) the difference between the two is political ideology, and not a difference of content or style of their “jokes”. I see no difference between Coulter and SNL, except that I personally find one funny, and one not.
BOTH sides of the political debate engage in “eliminationist rhetoric” as I believe it’s been called. You can’t get up in arms that Coulter amuses herself considering the execution of a newspaper editor, and not get up in arms about SNL portraying Bush as a person needing to be shot “for the good of the country”. They’re both telling EXACTLY the same joke, with exactly the same line of taste crossed in exactly the same way. Deep down, we all recognize that both jokes are “wrong” on some level, and cross a line, but the efforts here are directed exclusively at putting economic pressure on THEIR side to stop using that sort of joke and no one was posting a comment that BOTH sides cross that line rather regularly. I just wanted to point that out.
Of course, one can always fall back on the idea that THEIR side is filled with people who will take these over-the-top jokes to be serious calls to arms….we all “know” wingnuts have guns and some of them sit around polishing them at night, dreaming of the abortion doctors and Democrats they can unload them on. That’s a bit dehumanizing of “their” listeners, ain’t it? But doesn’t the right have an equal distrust of the audience for SNL or Jon Stewart? The right worries of the unwashed drugged out “hippie” watching his liberal TV and dreaming of shooting Bush.
In the long run, I support Spocko and see nothing wrong with what he’s doing, since he’s mostly just alerting advertisers to see if they support the things they’re paying for. Excellent civic behaviour, I have no trouble with it. And besides, anyone who messes with a right wing nut is good for the world, right?
I’m just trying to add to the conversation and say that in THIS particular case (and yes, I’ve heard most of, if not all of the audio clips that started this up) is literally no different than a hundred versions of the “this guy deserves to die” joke the Left is equally guilty of. Human nature includes violent revenge fantasies, and humour often uses violent revenge fantasies as a basis of humour. The wingnuts hardly invented it, and is hardly the exclusive users of this joke.
Do I find the KSFO people funny? Not really. But I don’t demonize them for using the same kind of humour that George Carlin, or political cartoonists do. I’ve seen dozens of editorial cartoons in the last month featuring Bush/Cheney gleefully tossing soldiers into volcanoes and off cliffs. Satire, right? But it’s still “eliminationist rhetoric” with the Commander in Chief killing his own soldiers. It’s ALL sort of tasteless and upsetting, but can be funny if done well.
I’m a comedy writer for a living, and BELIEVE me, most of my stuff is very leftie and very anti-right wing. I’ve tossed a couple of Bush jokes into my work in the last few years and gotten some good laughs of it, and I’m proud of my work. But it’s still just JOKES. A release mechanism for society’s emotions. The folks at KSFO are telling JOKES. Bad ones, tasteless ones, offensive ones, and not especially funny ones, but JOKES. Their side doesn’t like our side, and they’re going to have revenge fantasy humour about it, the same way we do. And Spocko was offended, so he did something about it, and if their advertisers think it crossed a line, than the advertisers deal with it.
But we can’t be the good guys with so thin a skin. You have to allow people who don’t like us the same ammunition in their rhetoric that we allow on our side with nary a blink.
I’m not anyone’s enemy here. I just wanted everyone to take a step back and examine the effort put into shutting someone up because we’re offended by their sense of humour. Would we be equally strong in our condemnation of ANYONE making the same jokes? Or is just jokes we don’t like?
Ann Coulter is vital to public discourse, folks, if only to hold up as an example of what asshats the right is. But no one should put effort into “punishing” people for jokes. The public will eventually do it themselves if they’re not funny, or not feeding into a need.
tybunny.
PS: To respond to a particular poster: Bartcop.com is a private website that I happen to enjoy. It does carry advertising, but I assume every advertiser knows full well what it’s supporting, since Bartcop is STRONGLY partisan and often very tasteless left wing humour. It’s the sort of place filled with NAZI/Bush images, and I know I’ve seen Condi portrayed as a cannibal there at least once. I included it, not as an identical situation, but merely to point out that both sides REGULARLY cross the line in making comments and jokes.
Tybunny,
These are not jokes we are talking about; you’re naming left-wing “humor” websites (and obscure ones at that; Bartcop is hardly even slightly well-known) and an SNL skit that no one has seen; the folks on these radio shows and folks like Coulter et. al. are NOT JOKING. There’s one difference.
Another one is: there are far, FAR more of these things happening on the Right. A while back, a few of us tried to find all of the right-wing hate websites and the left-wing hate websites (including “humorous” ones) and the right-wing sites FAR outnumbered anything on the left; and the left-wing ones were almost all humor. There’s another difference.
And the last difference I would mention is in the way the right does this stuff; sure, there have been some disgusting and tasteless things done on the left, such as Bush as a Nazi (hardly nothing new; this was done with Bush I and Reagan and Nixon, etc.) and Condi as a cannibal and Lieberman in blackface- I’ll agree, tasteless. But it’s of a different tone and form than what the right does; the right is much more serious about this stuff, and the right inspires quite a lot of damange becuase of it- with the person sending anthrax letters who was such a huge fan of Coulter, Malkin, et. al. and being inspired by their hate rhetoric. Any lefties sending anthrax? No.
I’d give you the benefit of the doubt, and I’d agree that free speech means all speech, including disgusting speech and speech we don’t like. No one is advocating silencing anyone. But, people who talk about killing other people, and who encourage bad things (such as Ingraham’s encouraging people to phone-jam election help-lines on election day, as one example) should be held accountable for their speech, and while you are always free to whatever speech you would like to make, you are not guaranteed payment for said speech (as in a job or advertisers, etc.) Your comparisons are, frankly, incredibly weak, and you come across as a concern troll. “Just be careful, guys.” Please.
Mike,
A real question is journalistic ethics. You have publicly stated you are a journalist for Air America. As well, you post commentary on the Huffington Post.
Is it ethical for someone who takes compensation from Air America to call for a boycott of their competitor? Is it ethical to misstate your profession as a marine in your biographies on the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post?
Is it ethical to berate a caller to the station, envisioning him as a “bus boy” when you, yourself was a waiter, mostly supported by your wife, while you played on the telephone during the past year?
Mike, in your thirty-nine years of life, have you ever had a job that has been fulltime in which you have been totally independent and able to care for your children (yes, children, including those from your former wife) and where you haven’t been supported in some manner by the government?
The military service is commendable, but shouldn’t you let readers know what really occurred there rather than representing yourself as a “marine?” Clearly, you aren’t a Marine…you’re a first year law student with one child and a child on the way, who is being supported by student loans and a working wife. Why do you put that on your bios….rather than “former marine” or a “veteran?”
What the public has seen of you is “ALL TALK” and the only action being battering Republicans at their events during political campaigns, in a violent manner while later claiming to deplore violence.
And with your last cry for “money” to support your hobby and cause, we see someone who is begging for handouts because he doesn’t want to grow up and become a man.
Mike, Mike, Mike….its time to grow up and go into the real world, away from your little blogosphere and your little rented apartment—get a real job and support your real family. I feel sorry for them that you have put everything, including them last, below your own selfish interests.
This has nothing to do with partisan politics, right now, but just an observer’s view on how much of a life you have wasted and are wasting. And I doubt you will publish this, because i don’t think your ego will allow it. You want others to think you are what you’re not.
Get a real job and let your poor wife have a break, especially with the pregnancy of your second child….be a real father and put your children first. And be a real person and think about people as “people,” not objects that are below you, like that caller you tried to insult by envisioning him to be a “bus boy.”
There is no indignity in being a bus boy….only an indignity of not working and asking for handouts as you are doing.
blogical,
let me begin by saying that your post deserves no response. You’ve violated so many rules of social grace that you truly deserve the ignomy of the lonely life you must lead.
But to answer some of your questions, here goes.
Of course it is ethical for me to call for a boycott of KSFO, even if I haven’t done so. working as a freelance reporter that has sold material to a show that happens to be syndicated by AA doesn’t strip me of my 1st Amendment rights. Further, I haven’t endeavored to hide my identity or connection (such as it is) to AA.
But you’re wrong on the issues anyway… (and this won’t be the last time you’re dead wrong). Nobody has called for a boycott of KSFO - to the contrary, we’ve raised the profile and spread awareness of some of their programming. If advertisers, after learning of the rhetoric the on-air “talent” employed to get the ratings KSFO points to in their ad sales, decide to pull their ads, well who are you or anyone else to take issue with that free market decision? Another question: was it unethical for Sam Seder to play Melanie Morgan audio clips on his show? One more: is it unethical for KSFO to sell ads under the Disney brand, claiming to be family friendly, while knowing full-well that one of their hosts is talking about blowing up Syrian mosques full of Muslims at peak worship time?
Second: of course it was ethical for me to snicker at the “bus boy” that doesn’t have enough sense to shut the hell up when necessary. That was pretty damned funny. And the difference between me and him is that I took care of my newborn during the year I spent waiting tables and calling talk radio while waiting to begin law school. You see, I found a woman that would bed me (unlike your “bus boy” friend, most likely). The truth is, I am hopeful for the future of poltics in this country for exactly that reason. I’m convinced that people like you and your bus boy friend develop your skewed sensibilities as a result of the void in your sex life. Ann Coulter, after all, can only sleep with so many conservatives… And, thank god, she seems to be infertile… So y’all are a dying breed - you’ll be extinct withing a few generations and the rest of us can get on with improving the society we’re a part of instead of fighting with you and your socially retarded cohorts…
Next: I didn’t get into UVa law school without some history of success in my “previous life”. I was an asst. sommelier to Kevin Zraley at Windows on the World. I wrote Cold Fusion applications that hooked websites to their underlying databases. I’ve never taken a dime from the gov’t except while serving in the Marines - and the money I took then was in my pitiful paycheck - $213 every two weeks when I started out in 1985… and I’ve no children from my first marraige.
I didn’t make the rules - they were given to me when I went through boot camp. “Once a Marine, Always a Marine”. I loved my time in the service and while a career of it was definitely not for me (news flash: I have a problem with authority), I’ve never regretted the time I served. To this day (and for the rest of my life) I go out of my way to greet other Marines - whether serving or not.
You cannot show me a single violent incident that can be attributed to me. Not a single one. The closest anyone gets is when I pushed Dan Allen off of me when he was crushing me against a doorjam. And the pictures tell the story there as well. Further, there were plenty of witnesses that will testify, if I choose to pursue the matter, that there was absolutely no physical contact between anybody until I asked George Allen if he’d tell us what he was arrested for when he was living in C’ville back in the 70’s. In other words, violence ensued as a reaction to my speech, not to any perceived danger to the Senator (other than the possibility of losing an election).
I guess everyone can judge for themselves who the child is here. One of us had something to do with swinging an election that resulted in changing history - the Senate is now in the hands of the democratic Party. Further, a former front-runner for the republican presidential candidacy has now been exposed as a disgusting racist and is still licking his wounds having been sidelined from public service. My arrest record/spousal abuse questions may have been a distraction of little consequence, but my work to highlight his racist record - and my question about the n-word - well, that’s something you will never do. Further, in a single year I’ve helped to heap discredit upon Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Newt Gingrich, Tom Tancredo… etc. etc. etc. I’ve written articles and blogposts that have been read by tens of thousands. Oh - and I’ve completed successfully my first semester at a top-10 law school.
You lurk in the comment section of blogs making an ass of yourself. Perhaps you want to re-examine your analysis and criteria for “manhood”.
I own my own house - and owned it before I met my wife.
And if you don’t think the thousands of hours I’ve put into the blogosphere and my activist efforts are “work”, well, it doesn’t surprise me. You are exactly the type of person that is used to something for nothing. Whether it is reading my blog or others, this new medium has been a godsend to you. You see, it is you that is enjoying the fruit of the blogosphere for free. While I create and labor to provide you with food for thought - or for rage - you freeload the product. If you were any kind of man at all, you’d take your credit card over to one of your wingnut sites and cough up a little scratch for your favorite writers. But I know, that’s paying for a service - almost like taxes… You’d much rather avoid them and stick your kids with the bill…
anyway, I’ve run out of usefull things to say to you other than this: stop being an asshole. Life is much more pleasant with friends.
Don’t rise to the bait, Mike. This is obviously the wingnut counterattack. I’d bet a pretty penny this is a KSFO affiliate of some sort. You used their own words against them - therefore they make character attacks. I wouldn’t dignify obvious smears like that with a reaponse.
Yep, blogical is typical wingnut..half truths and the rest is lies.
One last post, then I’m out of here.
I’m all for people fighting against the right wing agenda and its media squawk box. Couldn’t be happier. (I found this article because I love hearing about wingnuts embarrasing themselves publicly, and boy these radio hosts are professional self-embarassers, I agree.)
I think everybody here is probably on the same side in the good fight. In my mind, Neo Con Republicanism is either an actual mental disease or a willful act of criminality and the movement and party should be fought tooth and nail. That sturdy 30% that ties itself to Bush and the hate speech of the right (a percentage lower than those who believe in alien abduction) are simple minded, nasty people. And if these radio hosts suffer because of something awful they said on the air, that’s GREAT! Especially because a citizen exercised his right to criticize it. And since the radio station is trying to tie Air America to all this, they’re clearly playing some lowball legal nonsense and deserve everything they’re getting.
On one level, everything is good here.
The only thing that bothered me, was that all this reaction came exclusively from something offensive that somebody SAID.
And the reaction, it seems to me, is that a group of people are working to ensure the utterers of this offending speech should be made to feel some consequence of having said it.
I wish everybody well. You’re probably doing the dirty job that needs to be done, I was merely attempting to play Greek Chorus on a small thread.
Thanks for the dialogue.
Tybunny. Trolling for carrots and nothing else!
Now, now, Mike. We are actually getting somewhere, to the base of your character.
I’m sorry you have difficulties with the “social grace of others.”
Isn’t it you that calls individuals on the telephone, lying about who you are and then asking them personal information about their lives over public air waves in an attempt to humilate them? And you are offended that someone had the audacity to do the same with you? Clearly, it upset you that I would do such a thing and yet you continue to do it to others. So, what I am hearing you say is, “it’s okay for me to do it, but God help anyone who does it to me.” Right?
You stated it was ethical for a journalist of the competition to call for a boycott of a competitor. As a law student, certainly you research your actions before you perform them and you must be aware of U.S. Code, Title 15, Chapter 2, Subchapter 1, 45, Unfair Methods of Competition Unlawful - Prevention by Commission in which it states:
1) Unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, are hereby declared unlawful.
I have to admit I was amazed you didn’t have the knowledge of wiretap laws, with the incident that occurred a few days back in which you tape recorded an individual without their knowledge and put it on public airwaves. That, in itself, is considered to be a violation of journalistic ethics as well as not revealing one to be a journalist. (example: “While pushing past people to get to a candidate for office you yelled that you were a constitutent and had a right to an answer.”
Look at this photograph:
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/112006/11012006/233662/lo110106allen1.jpg/photo_view
What I see occuring here is you are pushing past the door. Your left hand is holding a man’s right wrist in the air. Your right hand is grasping at his lapel. His left hand is holding his jacket. While you are engaging in a battery of this person, you are smiling.
Is this the ethical behavior for a journalist or was it a stunt to get media attraction, such as what you did in organizing the bloggers to contact advertisors of the radio station and is this the type of journalism that is condoned by Air America? Is this the type of behavior that is condoned by Democrats and are these the actions of a responsible, ethical individual who is conducting journalistic interviews?
You claim to be a leader in the Democrat party and are claiming responsibility for the Democrats taking over Congress in the last election because of your actions which involved an act of violence. I sincerely hope that is NOT the case, because what you are stating is the people voted because of your violent act and not because they looked into the issues. I believe people are a little smarter than you give them credit for.
Would you contact the advertisors of the Don Imus show and tell them the content of his commentary was distasteful, when he stated we should kill all terrorists for blowing up the World Trade Center and Windows of the World killing the seventy nine employees who were working in the same restaurant where you claimed above that you worked as a wine steward, or a waiter who served wine?
How about contacting the advertisors of Air America, regarding Al Franken’s quotes about execution of the Karl Rove and the President?
How about complaining to the Department of Defense against all those Marines since you still claim to be one) who make comments such as, “We should bomb them all.” (meaning the terrorist insurgents) Would you insist on taking their jobs.
Or how about the mothers and fathers and loved ones of soldiers, who make vent in he same emotional way? Would you do the same thing to them?
How about contacting the advertisors of Howard Stern? He makes the same brash statements on the radio…doesn’t care much for the French. Would you make a complaint about him too?
Or is it simply that one talk show…the one with the woman talk show host, who sent 18 tons of cookies and coffee to your fellow Marines and soldiers in Iraq? And took the loved ones of those who fell over there as well?
I don’t dispute you were a member of the Marine Corp in 1985, certainly you remember the four off duty Marines murdered by terrorists in San Salvador when they were diningin a cafe? Surely you remember those injured and killed on the USS Stark when attacked by Iraqi missiles in 1986, certainly you remember the terrorist grenade attack on our troops at the USO Club in Barcelona in 1987, how about the Marine Lieutenant shot in Panama and his wife beaten?
What you talk about with the Marines is what YOU got from it, not what THEY do and are doing for us after being sent into a war that was voted upon by Congress and the Senate. And your unethical public actions, exacerbated by your anger and poor impulse control do nothing but slam the honor of the Marine Corps and those who serve.
As for the rest of your message, its not even worth discussing and has little commentary or journalistic value.
Thank for for the truth of the statement, “(news flash: I have a problem with authority) That is one honesty you have presented forward. Perhaps that is why individuals view you to have a “credibility problem.”
Pulleessseee don’t dignify this crap with an answer, Mike. bio is fishing - trying to provoke an intemperate response it can distort and lie about you with. Legitimate criticism should always be responded to - trolls like this do nothing to further responsible dialog.
its nice to see lee rodgers coming down here with all us bloggers in our basements.
and i must thank him for substantiating all of spocko’s fears regarding coming out publicly.
while mike may be able to take it, because he is already on the national stage, spocko is a tiny blogger with a tiny site and up until recently has had no significant support from the blogosphere or legal voices.
there is no point in countering mr rodgers missives point by point (and please dont deny its you….just call me a jerk and be done with it) but it would be so easy to do.
mr rodgers may not be aware of this, but howard stern has a comedy show….in addition, it is no longer on the public airwaves, thanks to people like mr rodgers and other holier than thous who went after him when he turned on bush and his policies.
it is nice that ms morgan baked cookies for our troops…i am sure that they appreciated that gesture
it would have been nice if ms morgan had spent the three hours recounting how she went to iraq to pass out the cookies and poured the coffee for them.
oh what was that? she didnt go?
well guess what…al franken has done 3 tours of iraq entertaining the troups, he’s just not very good at baking cookies
as for anyone going after imus…..please, that’s like shooting ducks in a barrell.
its amazing the man is still alive.
so please, have some respect for the almost dead, we do…and thats why we leave imus alone, to mumble and drool into his microphone
i wish you had spent some time going over mr stark’s archives. in them you will find he has pointed out the hypocracy of many on right wing radio,
and in fact, he would never have touched the ksfo hosts….you made yourselves targets by misusing copyright statutes to attempt to silience a blogger who was threatening your livelihood. (he wasnt, but you percieved it as such)
please, leave the blogging to the bloggers and dont quit your day job….especially since it will probably quit you.
you may now call me a jerk….so have a nice day
btw mike,
i really wish you hadnt taken the time to respond to lee (and it is lee rodgers, or someone else affiliated with ksfo, or possibly maf)
leave that to us, the anonymous people.
the tact taken is the same as many in the msm, who see bloggers on a much lower rung….until they experience the impact of the blogosphere, which is why every major network, local tv station, magazine, newspaper, and lo and behold ksfo itself have started blogs and pod casts.
it is amazing to me why so much of the right believes that being in the military immediatly makes one a conservative. my dad joined and served in korea, and while conservative on some issues, is extremely liberal on many.
but for future reference, you might wish to post an “about me” page somewhere on the blog for ez access to these idiots.
oh, and i do like the fact that he acknowledged that he hates the military, because they are all on the public tit….way to support our troops.
PS: Bacci - you nailed it.
Biologicalthought….
Two things are clear…1) You are hurting. Whatever caused you such pain, I suggest you let it go of it, or hate will eventually consume you. and, 2) You make us all laugh like drunken circus monkeys, because you have CLEARLY never in your life met an actual Marine. Even someone as simple-minded as you who HAS actually met a Marine knows that there is no such thing as an “ex” marine. One of the first thing they teach you in basic is when you are in the Corps, you are in for life. If you actually KNEW one single Marine, you would understand that fact. Mike is a Marine…a former Marine, but still a Marine. Get over it. Besides that, what rock have you just crawled out from under? Mike has made it abundantly clear that he is currently a law student….All of the people who visit this blog know that. He repeats it often, and has made no effort whatsoever to hide the fact that he left the MArine Corps long ago, and is now in law school…with that in mind, what exactly is your point? Do you actually have one? or are you just here to spew petty little taunts?
Finally, you have spoken volumes on yourself without even intending to….here’s an example…you refer to the “Democrat” party. Simply put, there is no such organization, you stooge. Use of that term is being promoted by right-wing biased outlets like Faux Nooze and rabid right-wingers like Hannity and Limbaugh as a schoolyard taunt when they intend to refer to the DEMOCRATIC PARTY. In the future, if you want to sound all “book-learned” I strongly suggest you do not fall into such verbal traps…they only serve to make you sound highly partisan, easily controlled, and severely deficient when it comes to facts.
I think you have absorbed enough for now…I suggest you go sit on the curb and cry for a little while…it’ll make you feel better. Tell you what…when you get your courage all riled up again, you are welcome to come on back here, and I’ll tattoo another round of facts into your thick forehead.
It’s gonna take a few rounds for someone as dense as you to actually see how hard we are laughing at you.
An oldie but a goodie in honor of chickenhawks like bio…
(hat-tip to Operation Yellow Elephant)
THE BALLAD OF THE YELLOW ELEPHANT
(to the tune of “The Ballad of the Green Berets”)
We talkreal tough, we’re young Republic-uns.
We fight with words, just not with guns.
We show sup-port by swilling beer.
But since we’re rich, we’ll be staying here.
(chorus)
Chicken wings suit me just fine…
They go so well, with my yellow spine.
I’ll be in school…while you’re overseas…
And when you return, your job will speak Chinese.
Just like my gramps, and like my dad,
Terrorist dogs, really make me mad;
But as a Stan-ford B-school grad;
I’ll won’t be go-ing to Baghdad.
(Chorus)
Chicken wings suit me just fine…
They go so well with a yellow spine.
A poor man’s born to join the fray…
But being rich, I get an MBA.
I just can’t share, the poor man’s fate.
Cause all those Frat House babes won’t wait.
Like Dubya did, I’ll cruise with “C’s”,…
And just like Dick, I got “Priorities”.
(Chorus)
Chicken wings suit me just fine…
They go so well with a yellow spine.
We strut like cocks, down our “Old School” halls…
But we’re more like hens, cause we’ve got no balls.
Wait a second, wait a second.
Wasn’t Billogical one of the playwrites for the Swift Boat chronicles?
Thanks for taking our advice for now Mike. Try to avoid providing personal info on response to these creeps. Sorry to say, you’ve taken on the Klan here. They are desperate to hit back, to discredit the messenger - because they are in big trouble. The FCC is bound to get interested at some point - in spite of it’s current right wing tilt. You simply can’t use the public airwaves to threaten a constitutional officer with a “bullseye between the eyes” (and saying “I’ve put a bullseye on myself” to try to backpedal is in no way equivalent) advocate stomping liberals to death, or threaten a to do something to a listener’s cajones. Licencees have an obligation to serve the public interest - and they have to justify that annually. In short these creeps are toast - and they know it.
If Mr. Rogers is shorter than 5′4″, retired, wears a dress and is a grandma, you may be quite correct in your assumptions. LOL
I am loking for reasons for why Mike does what he does and why the lack of impulse control in a man who is almost forty years old. I do do a bit of “blogging” myself and am surprised that the readers who have made assumptions on this bulletin board haven’t exercised the resources to research who is writing commentary, but simply making blind comments. And in writing the comments, I am seeking discourse. Isn’t that the reason for internet message boards? Why else would there be a comment area if there wasn’t an opportunity to discuss opinion and to question?
Jeff states: “2) You make us all laugh like drunken circus monkeys, because you have CLEARLY never in your life met an actual Marine. Even someone as simple-minded as you who HAS actually met a Marine knows that there is no such thing as an “ex” marine. One of the first thing they teach you in basic is when you are in the Corps, you are in for life. If you actually KNEW one single Marine, you would understand that fact. Mike is a Marine…a former Marine, but still a Marine.”
I don’t understand how you could even come up with that assumption, obviously from two posts on this message board. Perhaps you can try to understand this, which is the laws and procedures under the Federal Government. Certainly Mike should be able to, being a first year law student. If one has enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, he can associate themselves with the Marines, but Mike clearly doesn’t do that, especially with the way he slams our troops and their actions overseas.
When one discharges from a branch of the Armed Services and obtains a DD-214 with a characterization at the bottom, despite the notation of characterization, they are no longer a member of whatever branch of the armed forces in which they have served. The proper refer is either “a former service member” or a “veteran.”
You are correct there is a saying, “Once a Marine, always a Marine” which is part of the exemplary espirit de corps of the branch. Semper Fidelis means “Always Faithful.”
But has he always been faithful to his battle buddies who are the Marines of today? Respectful, perhaps….but faithful? Has he been supportive? You know, you can’t support the person without supporting their cause.
I recall a post where Mike and others were researching someone’s DD-214 and how it was characterized. Perhaps in solidarity, Mike could scan a copy of his and put it up on the internet, with a little blog about what it means to him to be a Marine and how much the other Marines who are sacrificing for our country mean to him. And perhaps he could change his bio to read, “Honorably Discharged from the United States Marine Corps” if this was the case. It would be a bit more honest, rather than leading others to believe he is currently a Marine, as his bios do.
Finally, for all you know, this feisty, old grandma could have been a former military member during the Vietnam era.
Do you honestly think, during this age of the internet, Americans don’t research situations when they hear of them?All it takes is a click of the button and a google search. Is this not a political debate and a political website?
From this end, you haven’t heard any name calling, only hard hitting questions, the type that Mike asks of others. Yet, you, as liberal Democrats, are trying to dissuade someone from asking the questions by hurling insults toward those with a difference in views and making insinuations and assumptiosn that aren’t fact or based upon any evidence that could even be considered fact.
Pretty radical, especially within a time our country is faced with terrorism, having sustained the largest attack on our shore in centuries. And instead of hearing how to resolve those issues or even hearing support for our troops who are attempting to resolve those issues by fighting the war on terrorism overseas so we can be safe at home, all I hear is adolescent name calling, ridiculous internet political campaigns to squelch the free speech of others and venom.
Free speech was the very first concept of our American society, with William Brewster choosing to come to America with his band of Separatists after risking his life printing “illegal” pamphlets in Holland for distribution in England, for those who shared his religious beliefs.
Its appalling the bills to limit free speech in this country that the Democrats are introducing as well as the campaigns they are conducting, such as the one in question, the campaign against the movie, the “Path to 9-11″, the introduction of Senate 1, etc.
Democrats are no longer the “free speech” party. They wish to control the media and state what they feel should be said. Take the example of what happened to William Bennett, a talk show host” when a caller called in and there was a discussion regarding abortion rates, crime rates, the benefit to Social Security, etc. Bennett stated he understood the caller’s rationale, that it was similar to another theory. He then stated if If implemented, the idea would be “an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do.”
Conyers, a “Progressive Democrat” called for the talk show host to be fired. Emanuel said Bennett’s comments “reflect a spirit of hate and division.” Pelosi said Bennett was out of the mainstream, and Reid simply asked for an apology. (Interesting for Conyers, for in lieu of legislating, as he was elected to do being placed in the public trust of the people, he was arrested for unlawfully demonstrating in front of the Sudanese embassy. God help us when our leaders do not do what they are elected to do and choose to commit illegal acts instead.
And that is exactly what has been occurring in this situation. Talk show hosts vent emotion and the liberal Progressive Democrats take the material out of context and try to get them fired or try to get rid of their advertisors. Its becoming a pattern.
Clearly, in the above example, they were trying to limit his free speech. And now, Congress now feels it is important for them to take control over our children. They are sponsoring a bill to would reprimand schoolchildren for verbal criticism of their peers in any context, including sexual orientation, religion or simply expression of an opposing idea. Jerrold Nadler of New York is intending to reintroduce it, therefore, putting the behavior of our children within local school districts, under the jurisdiction of the federal government. It is an attempt to control words, just as they are trying to control the radio waves, the media, the television stations…and now our children.
Children do have a tendency to be cruel with their words (no different than some of the adult bullies on these internet sites) however they are young and they learn from their experiences the very important skill of being socially adept.
The Democrat bill outlines a $300 million dollar federal program to target bullies who harass other kids about their sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.
However, the language of the legislation is so loosely defined that it could punish kids for simply verbally disagreeing with another student about so-called “alternative lifestyles.”
The bill defines harassment as, “conduct, including verbal conduct, that creates, or would create, a hostile environment by substantially interfering with a student’s educational benefits, opportunities, or performance, or with a student’s physical or psychological well-being.”
Harassment would be taken to include, “any distinguishing characteristic of an individual, including actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity or expression, family composition or circumstance, or economic circumstance.”
Basically, what the Democrats desire is to take away the responsibility of the parents to discipline their own children as well as take away the rights of the School Districts in handling these matters themselves.
So, now, the Democrats’ thoughts are, if Mike’s children interact with other children, at school, the way Mike interacts on the internet, the Democrats will make sure there is a federal law that will punish Mike’s children for those actions…taking over Mike’s responsibility as a parent.
Mike may wish for the government to take control of his children, however a majority of American’s don’t.
So, instead of sponsoring bills for funding for Boys and Girls Clubs, Mentor programs, etc., that would have a positive impact upon children’s development, they are introducing one that would give the Federal Government the right to punish children. Go figure (kind of like New York City giving grants to a Boys and Girls Club and the Democrat Air America borrowing the money to advance the Democrat Party rather than benefit the children.)
So much for free speech in America, with Democrats in office especially with the actions and the verbage of the “Progressive Democrats” and their attitudes which prevail on this message board.
Oh lord…that was a pathetic rant…what is this democrat party you speak of? It simply doesn’t exist.
More fishing -notice how the personal info Mike revealed in his first response is used to attack? Now a request for his Marine records. Nice try.
Blogical…. Gee…you sure do talk pertier than a twenty dollar whore.
I know just what you were thinking….Why use ten concise words to express your pooint when 700 or so strung into a blathering illogocal sequence of unrelated rantings will do the same job?
Leave it to a neocon to just love the sound of their own voice. How unfortunate it is for you that being voluminous is not the same thing as being correct.
As pointed out earlier, Mike is hiding nothing about his USMC service….no matter how you try to repackage the same little dig, it just don’t shake.
P.S….Let me remind you once again…there is no such organization as the “democrat” party. Regurgitating the same old tired Linbaugh/Hannity memes does little to endear us to your arguements.
Now, try a new tactic, you fool….dance for me.
I smell……
Neocon desperation.
“There is no indignity in being a bus boy….only an indignity of not working and asking for handouts as you are doing.”
Lee, there might be a problem when one admittedly gets fired twice for unprofessional behavior. Have you ever lost a radio job?
Yakki….
I suggest you leave poor Blogical alone, or our own personal RainMan might just throw the phone book at you too. BTW…I was a little off on the original word count estimate…I guessed at somewhere around 700 words for his spittle-caked frothing neo-con diatribe. Actual count was over 1,500.
Poor dittiot must have an erotic fixation with Herman Melville or something.
Regards,
J-
“Poor dittiot must have an erotic fixation with Herman Melville or something.”
Maybe he bills by the hour?
FGFM,
I disagree…more likely (s)he bills by the word…People who display classical symptoms of A.D.D. cannot grasp the concept of time in periods longer than four or five minutes.
You see, poor Blogical is nothing but a third-rate cut-and-paste artist who lacks the ability to form original opinions.
Want proof? Select any sentence fragment from the Blidiot’s rantings and google it, and you will come up with identity of the REAL author….This dittiot just consumes the tripe without ever actually expending the honest effort to digest it, and regurgitates it thinking others will be impressed by sheer volume.
Too bad for Blogical that a thinking person can easily see that (s)he is nothing but smoke and mirrors….there is no wizard behind the curtain.
Bio(degradable)logical - The photo you linked to as evidence:
“What I see occuring here is you are pushing past the door. Your left hand is holding a man’s right wrist in the air. Your right hand is grasping at his lapel. His left hand is holding his jacket. While you are engaging in a battery of this person, you are smiling.”
That photo graph looks like something out of a David Lynch movie. Ya know, dreamlike and not real looking. Truthiness. When I doctor photos I use ACDphotoeditor.7. Give me a photo, any photo with a person you disagree with and I can make it look like their committing ‘battery’ on someone else in the picture. But one thing ya got to know, it will look like Mr. Fantastic (from the Fantastic Four) using his superhuman ability to stretch himself to ‘battery’ someone. I saw things on that site that were not meant for sane or clown circus fearing people to see.
Know I got to file that experience under “Things I saw and I possibly would have been better off if I hadn’t”. Good day, sir
It sounds like you guys listen to Rush and Hannity more then most concervitives. It you would listen to Air Bankrupped maybe it would not have to sign off the air so soon!!!